Colville second at River City

January 18, 2012

It was a good week to be a Colville High wrestler last week.
The Indians demolished visiting Chewelah in a Northeast A League dual meet last Wednesday night, 54-24, and finished second in last Friday and Saturdayâ€™s 15th annual River City Duals at Post Falls High School.
Host Post Falls beat Colville High 68-16 in the championship dual of the Gold Division.
The tournament featured 24 teams.
THIS WEEK
Colville, on the road until hosting the regional tournament Feb. 11, will travel to Rockford and Freeman High School on Thursday for a Northeast A League dual with the host Scotties and Newport (6 p.m. start).
The Indians will step out of NEA action on Friday for a dual at Medical Lake (6 p.m. start).
Next Thursday, the NEA dual meet title will be on the line when unbeaten Colville and Lakeside square off at Nine Mile Falls. CHS, Lakeside and Riverside shared the 2011 NEA dual meet championship.
Of course, Riverside might have something to say about that. The Rams will host Colville Jan. 27 in a make-up of a scheduled Jan. 4 match that had to be rescheduled because of some apparent administrative miscommunication on Riversideâ€™s end.
Colvilleâ€™s bus and wrestlers showed up at Riverside High School for the scheduled Jan. 4 match, but the Rams didnâ€™t have the NEA match-up scheduled.
Oops.
LAST WEEK
The Indians, as they have all winter long, dominated the lower weights in beating Chewelah in a match-up that consumed less than an hour. All the matches were either pins or forfeits.
â€śWe did what we needed to do there,â€ť CHS head coach Randy Cloke said of the Chewelah match. â€śI was disappointed in our finish at 152 and 160, but we were strong in the lower weights.â€ť

In the Gold bracket at Post Falls, the 5A Trojans downed Colville for the championship. Shadle Park was third in the Gold Division, Nampa, 4th; Lakeland, 5th; Capital, 6th; Timberlake, 7th, and Lewiston, 8th.
In the Silver bracket, Kellogg finished first, followed by Freeman, Priest River, Pullman, Sandpoint, Connell, Riverside and Wallace.
In the Bronze bracket, Ephrata was first, the Renegades club finished second and Lewis & Clark was third. West Valley finished fourth, followed by Liberty/Selkirk, Medical Lake and Gonzaga Prep.

Indians start fast

In the dual format tournament, Colville opened on Friday with a 72-12 rout of Bishop Kelly. The Indians followed that up with a 66-9 win over Wallace (Idaho).
On Saturday, against a line-up of much larger schools, the Indians were stellar, beating Capital (Boise), 54-28 and Nampa (Idaho), 44-36 before falling to Post Falls.
The finish was easily the best in Colvilleâ€™s long tradition of participation in the River City Duals.
Colville finished eighth last year.
â€śI was very proud of the effort to get to where we did,â€ť Cloke said on Monday. â€śWe really battled to get into the finalsâ€¦I donâ€™t think we have ever been in the finals (at the Duals).â€ť
Skyler Donner (126) and Chandler Knight (170) both finished unbeaten and 5-0 at Post Falls.
Tyler Ward, Jessie Morrison, Trenton Welton, Hunter LeCaire and Julio Valencia all finished 4-1.
â€śWe had several kids who were unbeaten going into that championship round against a very good Post Falls program,â€ť Cloke said. â€śPost Falls is legitimate.â€ť
Cloke was particularly pleased to have been able to win a tough, down to the wire match with Nampa.
â€śI am most proud of our semifinal win over Nampa,â€ť Cloke said of his teamâ€™s best dual win of the season to date. â€śWe needed to come through with a win in a close match against a tough opponent. We were able to do that against Nampaâ€¦it was good to finish strong there.â€ť
Ben Knight at 113 picked up a key win against Nampa that helped the Indians to a memorable win.
â€śThatâ€™s the best we have wrestled this season,â€ť Cloke said, pointing out that Colville was in tough against mostly 4A/5A schools.

Lindback comes up bigâ€”very big

Sometimes itâ€™s not about winning or losingâ€”itâ€™s about something more important and relevant.
So it went for veteran Colville High wrestler Colyn Lindback at the River City Duals last weekend.
Lindback, who had recorded three pins in Colvilleâ€™s run to the Gold bracket at the Duals, was asked during the Indiansâ€™ match-up with Capital if he would like to wrestle the tournamentâ€™s Most Inspirational wrestler, the Eaglesâ€™ Bryce Groth.
Groth is a popular figure in Capital High wrestling circles. The youngster, who wrestles at 138 and 145 pounds, has Down Syndrome.
â€śItâ€™s a real inspiration that heâ€™s out there,â€ť Cloke said of Groth, whose 138-pound match-up with Lindback has been well chronicled on YouTube.
Cloke was approached by the Capital High coaching staff and asked if Lindback would wrestle against Groth at 138.
When Lindback got word that heâ€™d be matched up with Groth, the Colville High wrestler knew what he needed to do and was more than happy to oblige and create a few memories in the process.
It was going to be competitive, but Lindback was going to the right thing and the best thingâ€”for both he and the Capital youngster.
â€śBryce hadnâ€™t had the experience of winning a wrestling match,â€ť Cloke said of Lindbackâ€™s opportunity. â€śColyn didnâ€™t even hesitate...â€ť
Lindback knew that Bryce Groth needed to have his arm raised after a wrestling match.
Suffice to say, before it was all over and Lindback was â€śpinned,â€ť there were more than a few tears flowing in the Post Falls High gymnasium.
This was one of those moments.
â€śIt was just so cool,â€ť said Cloke, who has worked with special needs young people for years. â€śThat was a special moment for a lot of peopleâ€¦for Bryce and Colyn. There were a lot of tears. It was a truly class act on Colynâ€™s part.
â€śThe young man got his arm raised. He was very happy and so were his teammates and coachesâ€¦it was just a great experience to have Colyn do that. It was one of those special moments and put a great capper on our tournament in Post Falls.â€ť